President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that the country has turned to a center for progress and development.
The president made the remark in the northern province of Gilan while inaugurating several major development and industrial projects, IRNA reported.
“Belief in Iranian nations ability has multiplied today,” said the president.
He underlined the need for participation of all people in constructing a developed Islamic Republic.
The president inaugurated three industrial projects in Rasht on Tuesday.
The projects included an iron mill, an industrial gas producing firm and a tile manufacturing factory located in Rasht Industrial Park.
Iran’s private sector has invested $84 million in Khazar Steel Mill.
Earlier this year, President Ahmadinejad inaugurated the Middle-East’s biggest coke-producing plant equipped with a 7-meter-high battery in Isfahan, central Iran.
One of the unique features of the coke-producing plant which was built in Isfahan’s steel factory is its 7-meter-high battery, standing 2.5 meters higher than the tallest battery of coke-producing plants in the Middle-East.
The plant was constructed at a cost of $161m.
The plant can produce 900,000 tons of coke which will be used in the furnaces of Isfahan steel factory saving €300m each year.
Iran plans to boost its annual steel output capacity to 42 million tons in the near future.

All Countries Invited to Rohani’s Inauguration

By Sadeq Dehqan
For the first time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, all foreign officials and leaders are invited to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s president-elect Hassan Rohani.
Announcing this, Abbas Araqchi, Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, said all countries have shown interest in participation in the event.
Speaking in a his weekly press conference, he said all countries except the US and Israel are invited to attend the ceremony which will be held at Majlis on August 4 a day after Rohani is endorsed by the Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
“Regional, neighboring and friendly countries were mainly Iran’s priority on the invitation list. However, we did not exclude other countries.”
The names of the foreign delegations and representatives that are to be invited will be announced in media.
Rohani emerged victorious in Iran’s June 14 presidential election, which was marked by a high voter turnout. He won 50.7 percent of a total of 36, 704, 156 ballots counted.
The Interior Ministry put voter turnout at 72.7 percent.
The Iranian president-elect currently represents Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Khamenei in the Supreme National Security Council and is also a member of the Expediency Council and the Assembly of Experts.

10 Dead in Fresh Egypt Clashes

Pressure grew on Tuesday on Egypt’s new leaders to release Mohamed Morsi from detention as clashes between supporters and opponents of the deposed president left 10 people dead.
The deadly clashes which also wounded dozens broke out on Monday, raged through the night and were continuing on Tuesday, a day after Morsi’s family vowed to sue the military over his ouster, AFP reported.
At least six people were killed early Tuesday when opponents of Morsi attacked supporters of the deposed president who were staging a sit-in near Cairo University, state media reported.
Morsi’s family told a news conference on Monday they will take legal action against the military for having “kidnapped” the elected president after he was deposed in a military-led coup on July 3.
Egypt’s new leadership says Morsi is in a “safe” place for his own good. Calls for Morsi to be released have also been issued by the United States, Germany, the United Nations and the European Union which, on Monday, again called for the Islamist leader to be freed.

The White or Black List?

By Emad Abshenass

Maybe if it wasn’t for the racist nature of the West, they would have chosen another name for the list which they now call the ‘black’ list—perhaps, for example, the red, yellow, blue or purple list. But they have chosen the name because they sought to ban black people and now this list has changed to include others.
Throughout history, patriots who fight to liberate their country from foreign occupation were and are considered heroes but now we find the European Union putting them on the ‘black list’.
The Lebanese Hezbollah has never fought against civilians and has never killed unarmed people, never invaded others’ territories, never performed acts against humanity, never used depleted uranium or ‘dirty’ bombs, never targeted the young or the elderly either intentionally or unintentionally, never terrorized or killed its enemies out of the battle field. All in all, it has never acted against humanity--acts which are only carried out by Israel.
Now the EU puts Hezbollah’s military wing on the terror list. For the sake of mockery, the same union removes the Mujahidin Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorist group from its list knowing full well that this terrorist organization was responsible for all sorts of inhuman acts.
Just last week, the French celebrated the Bastille Day--their famous national day. Would the French have been able to celebrate Bastille Day if it hadn’t been for the patriots who fought to liberate their country from Nazi occupation in World War II? The same goes for all other European countries. If it wasn’t for the patriots who fought to free their countries, these countries would not even have existed today. If the American revolutionaries and patriots, who fought in 1776 against British rule, did not fulfill their obligation, maybe the US would still have been a colony of Great Britain today.
That is why all international laws support legitimate struggles of people whose lands have been occupied. Though the black listing of Hezbollah’s military wing will not affect that party, such actions will however place its name on the ‘white list’ as all freedom-lovers around the world will continue to support Hezbollah.

Iranians Produce More Efficient Solar Cells

Iranian researchers from Sharif University of Technology, in association with counterparts from Cambridge University, synthesized...

Childcare Centers To Increase

The number of childcare centers, which offer 24- hour services, will increase by the end of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2014).

Three NATO Soldiers Killed In Afghanistan

Three members of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force have been killed in a bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan, the force said.
A suicide attacker on a donkey blew himself up as a convoy of Afghan and foreign soldiers drove past in Wardak Province, a local official said.
In June, NATO handed over security for the whole of Afghanistan to Afghan forces, but some 97,000 troops remain. More than 100 ISAF soldiers have been killed this year.
As well as the three foreign soldiers, their Afghan interpreter was also killed, the spokesman for the provincial governor said. ISAF currently has troops from 50 contributing nations--most of them, some 68,000, from the US--providing military back-up when needed.
By the end of 2014 all combat troops should have left to be replaced--if approved by the Afghan government--by a smaller force that will only train and advise.
Most NATO soldiers have died in insurgent attacks, but the pressure on contributing nations to withdraw has been exacerbated by a series of “green-on-blue” attacks in which members of the Afghan security forces have killed coalition troops.

Slowdown in BRIC

Stretched budgets and sluggish growth are putting emerging-market governments on a collision course with rising pressures from recently empowered middle classes for more spending and better services.
From Jakarta to Brasilia, policymakers face the end to an era of abundant global liquidity that helped fuel the fastest expansion in three decades, Bloomberg reported.
In the eight weeks through July 17, investors pulled $40.3 billion from emerging-market bond and equity funds amid signs the Federal Reserve may begin reducing stimulus later this year.
In 2012, $111 billion poured into these asset classes, according to EPFR Global in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which tracks money flows.
The Fed’s plans did not trigger the slump--after a decade of prosperity, the BRIC economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China have been slowing since 2010.
“Developing nations are punished more during downturns than their European counterparts because they depend on growth to mitigate social tensions,” said Angel Gurria, secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
“The needs are much more elementary and brutal,” said Gurria, a former Mexican finance secretary, in a July 19 interview in Moscow. “Families live with vermin because they don’t have cement on the floor, and when there’s a big wind it blows off the roof. This isn’t the problem the middle class in the Netherlands face.”

FIFA Lifts Global Cameroon Ban

FIFA has lifted its global ban on Cameroon after a normalization committee began its work on Monday to run the country’s football federation.
It is being headed by former Minister of Education, Sports, Joseph Owona, BBC wrote.
Earlier this month, FIFA banned Cameroon for governmental interference into the running of the country’s football.
The condition for the lifting of the ban was that the committee was allowed to begin work.
FIFA said in a statement, “As requested by the FIFA Emergency Committee, the normalization committee that was appointed on 20 July 2013 was able to take up its duties this Monday... at the Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot) headquarters, with FIFA and Confederation of African Football (CAF) observers present.
“The lifting of the suspension means that Fecafoot’s clubs, officials and other representatives can immediately resume their activities, which had been interrupted.”
The normalization committee will be working under the supervision of FIFA’s Primo Carvaro and CAF representative Prosper Abega. Cameroon will now be free to play their crucial 2014 World Cup qualifier away to Libya in September, with the winner advancing to the final play-off round. Meanwhile, club side Coton Sport will also be allowed to continue their African Champions League campaign--having failed to take part in their opening Group B match this weekend because of the ban.

Gas Export to Europe On Agenda

Translated by Leila Imani

The agreement on Iran’s gas export to Europe is expected to be signed in the near future, said the deputy oil minister.
Javad Oji added that an increase in gas production from the independent and shared gas fields has caused Iran’s gas export capability to increase to more than 200 million cubic meters per day.
He said that based on the Fifth Five-Year Development Plan (2010-15), the share of gas trade in total trade should increase from 2.5 percent to 10 percent.
The official said negotiations on gas export have been held with a number of European countries.
Oji noted that Iran’s gas will be exported to Europe through three pipelines, including the sixth 56-inch pipeline with a capacity of transferring 110 million cubic meters of gas and the ninth 56-inch pipeline with a length of 110 km and the capacity to transfer 110 million cubic meters of gas.
Two years ago, Iran held talks with Iraq and Syria on the transfer of gas to Europe and Iranian gas is expected to be exported to Europe through the pipeline crossing Iraq-Syria-Mediterranean Sea.